Rise in the City: An Affordable Housing Competition in Lesotho

The Rise in the City Housing Competition in the African country of Lesotho presented many similarities with student competitions that have occurred over the past decades, the main link being the presence of mentors as advisers to the team(s) who were designing the entries. One of the most famous examples of this was the winning design for the Vietnam Memorial Competition by Maya Lin, who was enrolled at the time in a studio course at Yale University. In that case it was also a case of students competing against professionals. Lin’s design just happened to find favor with the jury.

In the case of the Rise in the City Competition, the competition was limited to students and recent graduates in the field of architecture. The Rise in the City program, supported by Bond Events, is not only involved in the administration of the competition itself, but aspires to build the winners of the competition. As part of this project, local, unemployed youth (in loco) are trained in construction methods in the effort toward the realization of the project—with assistance provided by architect professionals. One element of the competition, which differs from most such events, is the sponsorship of each participating designer by outside firms, most of which are not architectural firms.

Of the listed mentors mentioned, it is notable that many came from high-profile firms, i.e., Perkins+Will, HKS, MAD, Eskew Dumez Ripple, Perkins Eastman, HGA, AECOM, SOM, as well as others from midsized forms of note such as Terreform, Chris Munro, etc.

The jurors for this competition had many roots in Africa, though scattered around the world. They included:

Peter Rich, architect and Principal, PRDesign, located in South Africa

Sam Óghale Oboh, Principal, AECOM Canada Architect Limited and President of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.

The Challenge

Since there has been a huge migration to the cities in all of the African countries, especially in the sub-Sahara region, the need for housing has been one of the most serious priorities facing all of the countries in the region. Thus, it can come as no surprise that sustainability was high on the list of issues determining the winner(s) in this competition. As listed in the competition brief, the jurors were asked to follow the following guidelines in the adjudication process, where (no surprise) budget was a determining issue:

Use of local materials specific to Lesotho (Maseru)

Unique and feasible designs that can be implemented immediately

Low cost sustainable design incorporating autonomy

A design that celebrates IDENTITY of a people

To nobody’s surprise, there were a number of approaches to the participants designs, from the more metropolitan look to the small-village version. In conclusion, although there were a number of entries from around the world, including from North America and Europe, it was of great interest to view entries from architects from developing nations, who had also received their degrees in their home countries. Who might one also have wished to see on the jury? Possibly Francis Kéré, one of Africa’s most well-known architects, originally from Burkina Faso, who is currently heading up his own firm in Berlin, but is still very much involved in the design and implementation of projects in his home country.

Winner – Block #77: “Creating Spaces” led by Tanmoy Dey who graduated in 2015 in BArch from Shahjalal University of Science & Technology in Bangladesh. Their mentor is Samuel Herpin from Remson Haley Herpin Architects in Louisiana, USA. Sponsor is Revel Partners.

Block #87: “Four by Four Times Three” by Amanda Saputri who graduated in Architecture in 2018 from Parahyangan Catholic University in Indonesia. Her mentor is Chris Munro from Fusion Design Consultants in Massachusetts, USA. Sponsor is Fender Katsalidis Architects.

Block #83: “House of Timing” by Sixin Liang who is currently studying MArch at the University of Ferrara in Italy. Her mentor is Victor Mirontschuk from EDI International in New York, USA. Sponsor is Simply Oak.

Block #25: “Lelapa” by David Kwantwi-Mensah who graduated from BSc in Architecture in 2016 from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, in Ghana. His mentor is Christopher Rose from Christopher Rose Architects in South Carolina, USA. Sponsor is Revel Partners.

Most Promising Design & People’s Choice Award – Block #47: “New + Old” by Tumelo Lerata who graduated with a Diploma in Architectural Technology in 2016 from Lerotholi Polytechnic. His mentor is Benjamin Porto from Snarkitecture in New York, USA. Sponsor is The Durst Organization.

Comment Interesting comment you make about our choice of judges. We did invite Francis Kéré to be on the panel but unfortuantely he was too busy. Sam Oboh one of the other judges is working with him on a project and one of our lead architects Luca Astorri also works with him on his workshops at Mendriso University and we often show his work in Lesotho through the monthly film screenings and discussions we host so we are a great admirer of his work and hold him as an examplary role model for the young architects in Lesotho.

If cities in the U.S. are anticipating funding from government entities to solve a dire need for affordable housing, they should be prepared for a long wait. The national government, a traditional source of funds for such projects, has shown little if no interest in the issue, and state and local sources are at a minimum. To exacerbate the problem, the construction cost of affordable housing has risen exponentially the the past few decades. Gone are those days when architects such as Oakland-based Michael Pyatok could build affordable housing for $100 a square foot.

In his introduction to Form and Dichroic LIght, Michael Crosbie never mentions the term, “wild card,” to describe Office 52’s participation in the invited competition for the Carnegie Mellon Engineering Building. The four finalists, picked from a list of 17 firms, also included three household names: ZGF, Wilson, and BCJ (Bohlin Cywinski, Jackson). So what possible chance could a firm, which had just recently opened a small office in Portland, Oregon, have against a competition lineup of this magnitude? But as OFFICE 52 Principal, Isaac Campbell explained, as a small firm, “we were quite nimble,” and the $50,000 stipend the firms all received to produce a design could allow OFFICE 52 more time to undertake the research involved than might be the case with a larger office, where a cost controller is constantly focusing on the operation.

Reconstituting an Abandoned Rail Line

The Rails to Trails program, which gained momentum after the1984 Federal Land Banking Law—supported by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy—has seen over 24,000 miles of trails established where rail lines once existed. Some sites were strictly urban, while others, sometimes over 100 miles in length, were primarily rural, while others combined some of both.

Plans for the Final Expansion of Schultes’ Federal Chancellery Building

The reunification of Germany in 1989 not only had a great impact on the lives of many Germans, especially those living in the former DDR,but together with the decision to move the nation’s capital from Bonn to Berlin resulted in two major international design competitions in 1992: the first was to convert the existing Reichstag building into a home for the German parliament, the second being the Spreebogen planning competition, which included a chancellery for the head of state as well as needed buildings nearby for the Federal government.

The Renovation of a City Landmark

The renovation of Miremont-le-Cret n 2012 was unusual in that the project was the subject of a competition. This building had long been landmarked as one of Geneva’s most significant modern accomplishments, designed in 1953 by a local architect, Marc-Joseph Saugey. The building’s design is remarkable in how it fits into a somewhat narrow, elongated site, but solving the issue of monotony that could naturally arise had the facades not consisted of a simple elevation with no protruding edges. Instead Saugey came up with the idea of a faceted treatment of the facade on both sides of the structure, thus eliminating any notion of boredom on the part of a casual visitor.

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